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Toleda
In the Canon:-''' In the book ''Witches Abroad'', the three Lancre witches, while travelling Rimwards by Turnwise to Genua, briefly stay in an undefined and un-named country which straddles the Vieux River and which manifests a suspicious similarity to Rounworld's Spain and Portugal. Right down to the language spoken, the red-blooded machismo of its menfolk, and a strange custom involving running furious bulls down the main street of town, whilst running men strive to run faster. 'In the Pessimal Discworld:-' This land has been called Toleda and made into a more defined and structured nation, which in accordance with Pratchett's Law of National Parody is our own Spain with all the knobs turned up to eleven. (Toleda = a city in Roundworld Spain, long famed for making the very best armour and steel weapons in Europe. Even the Japanese, no mean swordsmiths themselves, realised that Spanish armour was something special, and incorporated Spanish breast-and-backplates, as well as helmets, into samurai armour.) The written convention in Pessimal's stories that denotes a character speaking Morporkian with a strong Toledan accent is the use of uniquely Spanish exclamation marks for emphasis. An unseemly number of tildes may also be used to denote Toledan origin to the speaker. Witness a dialogue from the story ''Clowning Is A Serious Business'':- Mrs Sandra Battye, of the fairly new Guild of Prostitutes(1), 'carefully turned the iridescent tunic over in her hands and noted its intricate needlework. "Three of these? And you say they're for a circus troupe? Yes, I can do all the necessary repair work and replace the gaps where the feathers have fallen out. This is gorgeous workmanship! The only worry is that I might not be able to match all the colours. The raw material can be hard to come by. The Zoo collects and sells ostrich and peacock feathers and cast-offs from its birds, but there's real competition for them, from the couturiers and milliners, and from the theatres and Opera House. " Dolores de Guttieriez crossed her legs and smiled. "The Assassins' Guild maiñtains an Animal Mañagement Uñit where it has very large aviaries for tropical bird species." she said. "I was talkiñg to Miss Smith-Rhodes, who says she'll make sure you get all the exotic bird feathers you ñeed for this, with some to spare for any similar work you do." "Lovely!" said Sandra. "I really want to take this job on, it looks so interesting!" They agreed a price, and Dolores knew the costumes would be looking their best on the day. Mrs Battye was too good a – she frowned – ¿''prostitute? ¿Una puta? ¿Pero las putas no cosen? Las putas no estan las puntandistas…. Ah! '' Morporkian wasn't her first language, but she thought about ''the prostitutes are ñot the seamstresses, ''and an instant of realisation hit her as she contemplated the Seamstresses Guild on Sheer Street. ''¡What a crazy people!, she thought. A Prostitute is really a seamstress, and a Seamstress is really a… ¡Ño wonder Alice and Joan made absolutely sure I came to Mrs Battye! _______________________________________________ Toleda has briefly had an Empire, built as Ankh-Morpork's strength and influence receded. Briefly a world power, Toledan conquests ranged in a largely Rimwards direction through Muntab, H'Rull, Khanli, Ghat and the Sumtri Islands. Scrupulously avoiding conflict with Klatch, they skirted the boundaries of this Empire and, seeking the fabled gold to be found there, launched an attack into Paraquat, a land of deep jungles and vertiginous mountains and valleys. This was to be the limit of Empire: the neighbouring Tezumen, in a deeper jungle still, were a far harder nut to crack and remained free. Borogravia, Zlobenia and Uberwald had troubles of their own, which the Toledans exploited by playing the "divide and rule" game to prevent them from uniting against the Empire. today, only Paraquat and the Sumtri Islands retain Toledan as a spoken language: the rest of her former colonies recognise it, but prefer to speak their own native tongues. With the loss of Paraquat and Sumtri, Toleda gave up pretensions of Empire and is now the sleepy, unambitious, backwater visited by Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick. The annotations should be obvious - Paraquat is of course Roundworld Paraguay , but stands in this Discworld for the whole of Latin America. The Sumtri islands bring to mind Roundworld's Phillipines, an early Spanish conquest named after King Philip and a vital staging post for further expeditions to China and Japan. Ghat might be analagous to Portuguese Goa, the only part of the Indian subcontinent not owned by the British and which remained Portuguese up until the early 1960's. Category:Discworld Political Geography